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Friday, September 07, 2007

“Wer you cam pohm?” An almost musical, Thai accent-voice came from behind me.

“I don’t wanna look. I don’t wanna look. I don’t wanna look.” I said quietly to myself. I have answered this question a million times and when I entertain it; the conversation will not end as soon as it should. I will not entertain it this time. No! Period.

“Hey you! Wer you cam pohm?” the voice seem closer now. But I’m determined not to look behind. Maybe he’s not talking to me anyway although I’m the only one on this bench. Queen Sirikit Park got lots of foreign joggers in the afternoon, so maybe he’s asking somebody else.I tried to ignore him. All I wanted was to enjoy this horrible vegemitethat one of my readers in Australia sent me. But I’m really sorry – it’s already half the bottle but it still tastes like dust!*smirk*Shall I give the rest to the “wer-you-cam-pohm” guy? – I looked behind me…oh shoots! I said I won’t!

“Wat you eet?” he said smiling. I didn’t answer. “Wer you cam pohm?” the dreaded question came again.

“I’m Thai.” I said in English.

“You not look lai Thai people.” he said like I’m bullshitting him.

*See?* This is why I always avoid this question. I know how to answer it but people seem to have a hard time comprehending it.

“Roo krub. Pohm pasaa Tai dai krub.” (I know. I can speak Thai )*teasing him with the weirdest accent I can muster*.“I’m also Belgian”I continued like I was talking to a 2 year old.

He gave me the“I-didn’t-f*ckin-understand-what-you-just-said”look so, I enunciated “BEL-YIAM” in Thai accent. He got it! Whew!

“You not look lai Bel-yiam people.”

*See?* I told ya -- This conversation won’t go anywhere and I bet his next question is if I like Thailand.

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Comments:

OMG HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! next time if anyone asks you that, just speak Thai back to em, perhaps with some sorta slang that is known only to thais? And seriously, is that how they speak English?? Japanese people with no English education speak English funny too. Its okay though. I used to speak REALLY REALLY bad English myself.

In the Phils, when people hear someone talking in English (no matter the appearance), they try REALLY hard to talk in that same language, most especially if you speak it with an accent. My big mouth got me into this situation a lot of times, once when I was getting my passport and another time inside a restaurant, when I was speaking to my companions in English.

It was pretty funny to hear them struggle then breathe a sigh of relief when I started speaking Filipino. Hahaha.

Was in KL last weekend and partied at Zouk and Heritage Row. You should blog about whether you can get a taxi for less than 10 Ringget. A taxi asked me if I liked living in Bangkok and I said sure, the taxis use there meters. He responded that is was a holiday, I asked which one and he said "Saturday", Roads are difficult. (The roads were empty).

Weird but true. I'm not a Eurasian but during my visit in 2004, at the Vimanmek Mansion, I was bombarded by questions by the Thai ladies (tour guides)when they realized that I'm from the Philippines. I guess that's just one of the downsides when your'e in a foreign land...well, except in the U.S., a multi-racial country, where I never experienced being bugged. Although I experienced one time being shouted at by Afro-Americans "Kuya! Kuya! Kamusta!" (Brother! Brother! What's up?!) to my surrrppprissseeee...